168 – Note to Nonprofit Execs – Supporting Volunteers is Everyone’s Job

June 26, 2025

Episode #168: Note to Nonprofit Execs – Supporting Volunteers is Everyone’s Job 

In this episode of Volunteer Nation, Tobi Johnson addresses a persistent and deeply rooted challenge in the nonprofit sector: the lack of buy-in and active support for volunteers across entire organizations—not just within volunteer departments. Drawing from the VolunteerPro Impact Lab seminar and a decade of data from the Volunteer Management Progress Report, Tobi urges nonprofit executives to reframe volunteer support as a staff performance issue, not a matter of personal “buy-in.” 

She shares practical strategies for building a culture where volunteers are valued, supported, and integrated throughout all levels of an organization. If your nonprofit depends on volunteer talent, this episode is essential listening. 

Supporting Volunteers – Episode Highlights

• [02:00] – Why most staff don’t see volunteer support as part of their role 
• [08:00] – The systemic issues behind poor staff engagement with volunteers 
• [12:00] – Why the issue isn’t just buy-in—it’s employee performance 
• [14:00] – The need for clear expectations and accountability from leadership 
• [15:00] – The 4 pillars of employee performance 
• [19:00] – The power of mindset: choosing abundance over scarcity 
• [21:00] – Leadership responsibilities for building a volunteer-inclusive culture 
• [22:00] – The invisibility of volunteerism in strategic conversations 

Supporting Volunteers – Quotes from the Episode 

Helpful Links

• VolunteerPro Impact Lab  
• Volunteer Management Progress Report 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #133 – My Secrets to Building Buy In & Reducing Resistance to Change 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #009: Helping Nonprofit Employees See the Value of Volunteers 

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Episode #168 Transcript: Note to Nonprofit Execs – Supporting Volunteers is Everyone’s Job 

Tobi: Well, hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson and I want to tackle a prevalent issue in the field of volunteer engagement and nonprofits. It’s a perennial problem that I want to delve into a little deeper. Last week, I presented in the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab, an advanced seminar called The Volunteer Experience is Everybody’s Job, How to Ensure Staff, embrace their role in supporting Volunteers, and in this seminar, I shared some key strategies for ensuring that organizations have clearly set expectations for providing exceptional volunteer support at every level. That supervisors know what’s expected of their direct reports, and that your coworkers feel confident in their ability to pitch in no matter what their job title. 

But it really is something that. Such a challenge for organizations that I thought. I would also share a few of my key takeaways this week on the pod and some new ways of thinking about buy-in when it comes to supporting volunteers for organizations that rely on volunteer talent to meet their missions, volunteer engagement. 

Really is everybody’s job during their onboarding process and while they’re on shift. Volunteers interact with a variety of people, mostly employees who hold tremendous sway over the perceptions and satisfaction of volunteers. But unfortunately, most staff don’t recognize their vital role in creating a welcoming environment where volunteers can thrive. 

In fact, many don’t even realize it’s part of their job. So, that’s why I decided I’d record today’s episode. While the volunteer services department or the volunteer coordinator is directly responsible for the success of volunteer engagement overall, it really does take a team to supervise and support volunteers effectively in their day-to-day work across the organization. 

It really is not possible for one person to be everywhere and to do it all. And so today I want to direct my comment specifically to nonprofit executives who are supporting organizations that are relying on volunteer talent, those types of organizations that simply cannot meet their missions without the involvement of volunteers. 

And we’ve got to take this approach that supporting volunteers is everyone’s job. We have real barriers to this in our organizations, so I wanted to shed some light on this so that if this is happening in your organization, you’ll have some practical steps you can take, whether it’s changing, how you support volunteers, changing how your staff support volunteers, and for the volunteer managers that are listening, maybe you can share this with your executive and it might give them some insight. 

Into what you’re facing and if you’re a leader, volunteers, I’ll also share some things you can do to help your organization and your coworkers understand how supporting volunteers everyone’s job is. This isn’t the first time I’ve covered this topic in Volunteer Nation, episode 133, I talked about my secrets to building buy-in and reducing resistance to change, and I offered seven ways you can build wildly enthusiastic buy-in for your next volunteer initiative or policy change. 

Be sure to check that out if you are rolling out a new initiative where buy-in is important and may make or break that, the success of that change in Volunteer Nation episode nine. Helping nonprofit employees see the value of volunteers. I conduct a deep dive into ways to build influence for volunteer managers and help your coworkers see the value of volunteers. 

This is also helpful for executives as well. You know, I covered this issue of buy-in and the fact that supporting volunteers is everyone’s job because it continues to be a significant barrier for success for volunteer fueled organizations. In our most recent volunteer management progress report survey. 

We surface some major themes around buy-in that directly impact the level to which staff are supporting volunteers. It became crystal clear that this is a barrier to success, and we cannot really expect volunteer programs to be successful if staff are not supporting volunteers in active ways. There were two big themes that came up around buy-in, and support. In that survey, there were of course many other themes such as volunteer recruitment challenges and other things. But I, in terms of buy-in, there were two key things that really bubbled to the top that I thought I might call out and even read a few of the quotes that came in when in some of our open-ended questions. 

So, one of the themes was a lack of leadership buy-in and strategic vision. Many respondents cited a lack of understanding investment and respect from senior leadership for volunteer engagement. This included insignificant or insufficient resources, absence of a clear strategic direction, and a failure to prioritize volunteers within organizational goals. 

And we heard things like. Here’s a quote from one of our respondents. There’s no clear vision for volunteer engagement at the top. Even the departments that are currently managing volunteers in their area. Another quote we heard around this theme was, management is unenthusiastic about the volunteer program and intentionally ignores or disregards emails and requests. 

If management can’t get behind volunteer engagement. It is very difficult for the rest of the organization to do so. Let’s look at the second theme, staff buy-in and collaboration challenges. A common struggle we heard was about getting colleagues across departments to understand, respect, and take part in volunteer engagement. 

Many felt that they were working in silos or facing passive resistance. So not only were they facing some. Folks feeling that they were facing resistance or lack of buy-in from leadership that also many felt that lack of buy-in from their coworkers. A few quotes, my biggest challenges are my coworkers and negative attitudes. 

Trying to get my coworkers to see the value in volunteer contributions is a challenge. Another quote, second quote. Program managers and supervisors are having a difficult time giving up ownership over tasks. The newly recruited volunteers become frustrated and leave basically because they don’t have anything to do, because people will not delegate tasks. 

Another quote, I often feel like other staff don’t understand the level of energy and detail it takes to screen onboard and get to know individual volunteers. So, what can we do about these prevalent attitudes? Is convincing individual leaders and staff to value volunteers the answer? Or is there a more systemic issue at play? 

What is the root cause When an organization’s staff are not actively invested in supporting volunteers? And these are questions I started to think about. As we have seen this issue come up time and time again, 10 years, we are in our 10th year of our volunteer management progress report, and we see this issue come up over and repeatedly. 

So, I’ve really been diving into it and thinking about how this can. Be tackled within organizations because it is a prevalent and persistent issue. It also impacts volunteerism in general because when a volunteer has less-than-ideal experience with an organization, they often paint a broad-brush stroke over volunteerism in general and decide that it isn’t for them. 

So, one bad experience can really spoil volunteering for people. And right now, we need more volunteers than ever. And so, we’ve really got to think about. How are we creating a culture that welcomes volunteers, not one where volunteers are seen as something that’s nice to have, not need to have, or something that it does not merit attention, resources, and support. 

And so, let’s take a quick pause from my chat about how to get everyone in your or organization engaged in supporting volunteers. When we come back, I’m going to talk about root causes and I’m going to talk about exactly what you can do. So don’t go anywhere.  

VOLUNTEER PRO IMPACT LAB 

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In the end, you need a system in place that’s clear, standardized, efficient, and that gets results. In addition, and maybe this is the most important, you need a volunteer program design that directly contributes to your organization’s most critical goals. That’s where the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab comes in. 

When it comes to effective volunteer engagement, our bespoke volunteer strategy Success Path model, which is the heart of our resources and strategic advising, will help you transform your volunteer strategy. From fundamental to a fully mature what’s working now approach and all in less time with our online assessment, you’ll quickly gain clarity on precisely where to focus your efforts, and we’ll provide recommendations for the exact steps needed. 

For sustainable growth, regardless of how large or small your organization is or what your cause impact area or focus is. Our program development and implementation support model will help you build a strong foundation so volunteerism can thrive at your good cause. If you’re interested in learning more, go to volpro.net/joinand we’ll share how to get started and what’s involved. 

Okay. We are back with my conversation about how to ensure everyone understands their role in supporting volunteers and buys into it. So right before the break I asked what’s the root cause when an organization staff are not actively invested in supporting volunteers. 

For me, as I’ve thought this through. I think the issue really is employee performance rather than buy-in. When staff are not supporting volunteers, it is an employee job performance issue, and I think we need to start calling it out as such. I. If we are depending on volunteers to meet our missions, they are a valued human resource. 

And when anyone in your organization works to degrade that resource or to bring down the morale or to impact negatively the culture that that resource. Works within, then that is a problem that is working against your organization’s impact. And we often work very hard, and I get lots of questions from folks. 

I’m training and coaching around buy-in. But buy-in really isn’t the answer. In some ways. Buy-in. When we use the term buy-in. We’re talking about something that is optional. We’re trying to convince someone to believe something. We’re trying to get support and with volunteer managers who, as middle managers in an organization, don’t always have the. 

Authority level to influence others in the ways that they’d like. That seems to me, I mean, you can work, and I do a lot of coaching and training on leadership skills and influence skills, but that simply isn’t enough. I. When we’re looking at making sure that everyone in your organization is supporting volunteers in appropriate ways based on their role, and so for me, I’m shifting away from thinking about buy-in and I’m shifting towards thinking about employee job performance. 

Because again, if we are working in an organization or leading an organization that relies on volunteers, then we’ve got to make sure everyone is equipped to support them, that this isn’t an optional nice to have. So, it real supporting volunteers is not optional for organizations that rely on volunteers for their key operations. 

However, for employees to, to take full ownership for volunteer support, it must be clear precisely the actions that they will take, what they will handle, and how they will be held accountable. That’s just management 101, isn’t it? And this mandate must flow from the top of the organization. Hence the title of this podcast episode, note to nonprofit executives because it is your responsibility. To make sure you set a culture that welcomes and embraces volunteerism. Otherwise, why do it? Right? Why do it? So, it must flow from the top and be supported in addition by systems, training and mindsets that work together to create a culture of volunteerism. 

When I do training on getting everyone involved in volunteer support, I talk about four key pillars for employee performance. Now this goes for volunteerism and anything else you’re asking your employees or coworkers to do. These four pillars are absolutely essential. Often, we think of training. As the primary way of ensuring that employees are performing. 

And while we are a training provider and we believe in training, training does not always guarantee performance. There needs to be other things in place. So, the first thing I’ve already mentioned is having an executive champion. To describe to teams what success looks like, so what does success look like when it comes to how we support volunteers and the executive and the executive team, depending on the size of your organization, are the folks that should be describing this vision and explaining to people why it’s important. 

The other three pillars are the second pillar is assignment, training and feedback. So, when I say assignment, I mean employees must understand. How volunteerism fits into their job description and whatever they’re responsible for when it comes to volunteers, and I’ll talk about what these things might be in a minute. 

It should be included in their job description. So that’s the assignment they need to be assigned formally. Some part of volunteer engagement. And again, there are a wide range of things they could do, and I’ll talk about these in a minute. They also need to be provided training. We are in the second week of a two-week supervision essentials course. 

We have teams of, of people who supervise volunteers, volunteer managers, et cetera, who are learning how to lead better. So, people need to be provided training. The third thing that is essential to performance in this assignment training and feedback pillar is feedback. So once folks are provided training. 

They must get active feedback on whether they’re performing to a standard, the standard that they were trained on. And so, if this doesn’t happen, people will either. Not, if they’re not assigned, trained and offered feedback, they will either believe it’s not their job, or they will take on volunteer support as they’re part of their job, but not do it well, or they’ll do it well and it’s fine. 

But what we’re hearing from volunteer managers in our volunteer management progress report is that not everybody has gotten the memo. So, we need to make sure this pillar is in place. Having an executive champion is one pillar. Assignment, training, and feedback is a second pillar. The third pillar is standard systems and structure. 

So, in our Volunteer Supervision Essentials course, we train on specific delegation structures, feedback structures. We talk about systems that need to be in place, and so when you’re supervising and leading volunteers, there needs to an organized system and operating system for how all your teams work consistently with volunteers. 

And so those structures need to be in place, so people know what are the standard operating procedures? Where can I reference how this works? What are the step-by-step? So that’s the third piece. The fourth piece is around mindset, and I am a huge believer in psychology mindset and an abundance mindset. 

An abundance mindset says that there is wisdom in the community. There are people in the community with talent that can help our nonprofit. There are people who have connections in the community that can help our nonprofit. There are people who have skills that there are people with wisdom who can lead that. 

There are plenty of resources and people out there who want to help us. We just must connect with them. So, there is an abundance mindset that. Trusts that volunteers can be part of the answer to reaching our organization’s goals. And so, I think that mindset is also important in these pillars for employee performance is. 

Addressing limiting beliefs as they come up. And there are plenty around volunteers to have the leadership skills to be able to address those and counteract them with more. With limiting beliefs, with more abundant beliefs. When we think about the executive champion for these four pillars, that primary, most important pillar in some respects, there are things that executives can do. 

One is to ensure that there’s a defined difference between paid staff and volunteers. This is very core and essential, I think, for organizations for liability reasons, but also for morale reasons and for people so that people can feel safe. If everyone understands how decisions are made between who is going to be paid and who’s going to be unpaid, those roles become clear, and there doesn’t need to be any turf battles, right? 

The other thing an executive can do is model respect and value for volunteers, so just in their words and actions. So having volunteers work in their offices, talking about the value of volunteers, thanking volunteers, all important. The other thing an executive can do is regularly include volunteers and volunteer engagement in strategic plans and reports. 

It’s often the fact that volunteers aren’t even mentioned, not just just in strategic plans and reports, but I can tell you many times where I’m reading articles in our sector or research in our sector where they’re talking about capacity, human resources, labor shortages. Funding, et cetera, and never a mention at all about volunteerism whatsoever. 

Where we know volunteers are donors, we know volunteers are part of our workforce. We know there’s just so many things that are missing when it comes to talking about nonprofits, like volunteers don’t even exist. Like, are you kidding me? So, we want to make sure that volunteers are part of our picture when we’re talking about our organization. 

Another executive responsibility is communicating support for volunteer engagement at all staff meetings leading the way around. Buy-in. Now again, buy-in for me isn’t the answer? The answer is really performance managing staff performance. May. So, another area is ensuring volunteer services has resources to succeed, including clear strategic priorities. 

Another area is, is making sure as an executive that the responsibilities for volunteer engagement are included in job descriptions and that supervisors are holding folks accountable for those in their employee evaluations. Okay, so those are executive responsibilities. Let’s talk about what those. 

Responsibilities for employees might be, that might be included in job descriptions. Now, not every job description will have the same types of, of responsibilities or tasks, but here are a few that, depending on the staff person’s role might be included. One would be welcoming and hospitality for new volunteers or existing volunteers. 

So, this could be your reception desk. This could be any staff who might. Simply encounter volunteers providing on the job training. This could be for some of your line staff or working side by side with volunteers. Day-to-day supervision might be for some of your staff who are, are supervising volunteers in their departments where volunteers are placed part, participating in formal and informal appreciation. 

So informal appreciation events, but also in informal ways like thank you notes and just. Just giving people kudos and saying thank you verbally. Program specific communication with and from volunteers is important for specific roles that are going to be supervising volunteers, and then communication with volunteer services regardless of your role. 

If you see an issue with a volunteer to be able to, you know, if you see something, say something so you can see how these are different responsibilities. Not all will be applied to every employee. But it is important to have these in the employee’s job description. Otherwise, they are not, it’s not fair to hold them accountable to them. 

So, think about these things as an executive or if you’re a volunteer manager listening, think about ways you can support staff and advocate for having volunteer. Support, supervision or what to, to the appropriate level for that role in job descriptions so that we can hold people accountable. Investing in people, whether they be employee or staff, paid staff strengthens your mission delivery. 

If your organization relies on volunteer talent, you simply can’t afford to leave the task of supporting volunteers across your organization to a single person or role. It’s just not simply possible. You think about. The volunteer manager, they cannot always be in all places. Supporting volunteers is everyone’s job, so let’s make sure that everyone is equipped to do it well. 

This will do your volunteer organization well. It will help your organization meet its mission more effectively if your team is working together. Rather than treating volunteers as second-class citizens or as nice to have add-ons, everybody wants to feel like they’re an important part of the team and for volunteers, they are contributing their most asset to you, their time and often. 

They’re making financial contributions too, so it’s time to really take their involvement seriously and ask them how they feel about their involvement. It might be a good time to take a pulse and a pulse survey and see how everyone’s feeling about the culture at your organization. Check to see, don’t make assumptions, and. 

If we think about volunteers from a, an abundance mindset, think about the wisdom, the skill sets, the connections, the lived experience, all the things that community members can bring to your organization. Think about that and then think about how you can prepare your staff to help them, because in the end, supporting volunteers is everybody’s job. 

So, I hope this has helped you think about employee performance when it comes to supporting volunteers. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. Give us a rating. We love five-star ratings. We love to have your comments. We love to hear about what you’re thinking and plan on joining us next week. 

Same time, same place on the Volunteer nation.